Optimal Degrees of Freedom Region for the Asymmetric MIMO Y Channel

Abstract: This letter studies the optimal degrees of freedom (DoF) region for the asymmetric three-user MIMO Y channel with antenna configuration $(M_1,M_2,M_3,N)$, where $M_i$ is the number of antennas at user $i$ and $N$ is the number of antennas at the relay node. The converse is proved by using the cut-set theorem and the genie-message approach. To prove the achievability, we divide the DoF tuples in the outer bound into two cases. For each case, we show that the DoF tuples are achievable by collectively utilizing antenna deactivation, pairwise signal alignment and cyclic signal alignment techniques. This work not only offers a complete characterization of DoF region for the considered channel model, but also provides a new and elegant achievability proof.